How to load an ISO image without a drive

Previously I was using a utility called daemon-tools, which was freeware. However daemon-tools now has toolbar and in older versions some extra bloatware. I found this post which gives the steps to use Microsoft Virtual CD software:

Once you download winxpvirtualcdcontrolpanel_21.exe and execute it will create 3 files:

readme.txt

VCdControlTool.exe

VCdRom.sys

Open the program VCdControlTool.exe:

Follow these steps to get your file mounted.

1.) Click Driver Control
2.) Click Install Driver
3.) [it should open to the folder where the files are, if it doesn’t find the folder you extracted the files to] Select VCdRom.sys and hit open.
4.) Hit Start below Install Driver [which should be grey now].
5.) Hit OK
6.) Hit Add Drive
7.) Hit Mount
8.) Find the file you are going to mount [.ISO or other].
9.) Select the file, hit open, hit ok.
10.) If if mounted hit ok, if not eject and try again.
11.) Open My Computer, the drive should be Z, right click to explore and find the setup.exe file [might be another file].

I have never had the cd auto start so you will have to do the last step most likely. This is a little bit of work but it’s worth passing the spyware and needing to reboot.

This is handy for loading an iso image if you don't have a DVD-ROM drive or even a blu-ray drive.

The limitation of this utility are that it works with .iso files only.  I discovered another alternative called VirtualCloneDrive from slysoft which is free of cost.  You can download it from here.  It works with the following file types:

.dvd

.ccd

.img

.iso

.udf

.bin